How to Get Started as a Beat Maker

May 2, 2013

Who is a beat maker?

A beat maker is a composer of music or better yet a person who create instrumental beats for singers to write songs to. A beat maker is not producer .They are not necessarily involved in the process of recording and arranging the final product. Why is this so? Well, a beat maker just creates and sells beats. How to get started?

So with all that said how do you get started as a beat maker? If you know how to play an instrument you’re halfway there, if not you have a lot of work to do. There are two things that a beat maker needs to know to get started:

You need to know how songs are structured

You need to know how to create these structures from scratch

Why? If you are able to listen to a song and recreate the structure, and keep the basic elements of a genre, you are a skillful beat maker. Your ears are your helper at this point.

How to develop your skills?

Understanding music and its structure is a part of the technical skills needed. The other is knowing how to create these structures. Don’t be scared you can’t play piano efficiently. You don’t need to be a highly trained musician to make beats. All you need to know is how to recreate what you are hearing in your head. The focus is the end product.

Start by mastering each song element. Drum patterns are the easiest to master. Listen to your favorite songs in the genre you want to make and recreate the drum patterns. Then go on to the bass line, then the melody until you have made everything. By doing this you’ll be training your ears to listen for each instrument.

As a challenge to start you on your journey, when listening to your favorite songs try beating on desk or any surface for that matter, the drum pattern you’re hearing. You’ll get a feel of how to make those types of beats.

What you need to start making beats?

Your beat maker tool kit will consist of the following:

DAW – Digital Audio workstation

Midi Keyboard

Speakers

Headphones

External Sound card

Various Vst instruments.

I will further breakdown various options for each category in anther article.

Do you need all of these to actually start? The answer No. I started with a copy of FL Studio 3.4, some crappy computer speakers and moved up from there. The key thing is to just start practicing.

About the author

Andrae Palmer is an Sound Engineer who started Remla Productions in 2010. Connect with Andrae on Google+ or on Twitter